Thefts, equipment tampering result in locked classrooms

A rash of incidents of theft and tampering with the electronic equipment in classrooms across campus has resulted in a new procedure requiring teachers to lock their classrooms has been put into effect.

Dr. Beth Rushing, dean of the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, sent out an E-mail to all teachers asking those who teach in the classrooms with multimedia equipment to be sure to lock their doors.

“It’s not really a new policy,” Rushing said. “I wouldn’t even call it a policy, as much as just a procedure to make sure that we can hold on to our technology.”

In order to try to protect the classroom equipment, Rushing has requested a procedural change to try to enhance security.

“Recently, I asked faculty to start locking the classrooms when they leave,” Rushing said. “It’s an inconvenience for faculty members; I’m sure it is for students as well, but it’s the only thing I can think of short of putting a cage around the equipment. We’re trying to protect the investment.”

Students who wish to use the classrooms outside of their class time to do things such as practice speeches, or prepare a presentation, will no longer be able to access these rooms when a professor is not around.

“We want the building(s) to be as accessible as possible, but at the same time, we really do have a problem with stuff being stolen,” Rushing said.

It is not an uncommon occurrence for faculty members to come into the classroom and find that equipment has been manipulated. Sometimes it is simply moved, but other times it is completely disassembled and unplugged.

History professor Dr. Deborah Vess uses many kinds of multimedia her classes. For her, it is especially difficult to find out that the equipment in her classroom isn’t in working order.

“All (the teachers) in Room 272 had problems for the first few weeks of the semester because someone had gone in there and disconnected all of the equipment, and the Internet connection was down,” Vess said. “For those of us that use a lot of multimedia, it does present a lot of problems. I’m personally very frustrated to come in there and find out all of the equipment has been disconnected.”

While tampering with the equipment is the more common problem, equipment has actually been stolen from several classrooms.

“We’ve had some (equipment) stolen from the A&S building and from across the campus,” Rushing said. “Projectors have been unscrewed from the ceiling in the middle of the day, on a busy hallway. It’s not an everyday occurrence, but we’ve had enough stolen, and we don’t have enough money to replace it all.”

DVD players and projectors are among the items that have been stolen.

“Not long ago, we had two students who were convicted on charges of having stolen thousands of dollars worth of equipment,” Vess said. “A lot of that equipment is worth a lot of money.”

Candus Davis, a business management major in Vess’s class, said that the damaged or disconnected equipment has caused delays in the class.

“Our class is behind a day and a half,” Davis said. “We lost half our lecture time because our professor’s PowerPoint wouldn’t work.”

Dr. Chuck Fahrer, professor of geography, is supportive of the new procedure.

“I spend hours preparing PowerPoint, and if I spend all that time and come in and find out someone has messed with the equipment, I’m in trouble,” Fahrer said.

The administration and faculty hope these changes will result in a decrease in the problems that are currently plaguing the classroom equipment.”I really wish the students would respect the rooms a little bit more,” Vess said.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 30 2005. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry